WNZ@ICASA 2011: Own, Scale Up, and Sustain

Building on more than a decade of women’s organizing at and around the International AIDS Conferences, the Women’s Networking Zone (WNZ) at ICASA will take place in the Community Village of the International Conference on HIV and STI’s in Africa from 4-8 December 2011 in Addis Ababa. The WNZ@ICASA2011 is being organized collaboratively by the National Network of Positive Women Ethiopians, the ATHENA Network, the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA), and the Southern African AIDS Trust, with a range of partners from across Africa.

The WNZ@ICASA2011 builds on a consultative process from the 6^th IAS HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention Conference in Rome this July to identify key issues affecting women and young women in relation to HIV and AIDS in Africa, including stigma and discrimination, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The process has been led with and is inclusive of women and young women living with HIV, whose leadership the WNZ seeks to promote, while encouraging linkages between women and young women in all of our diversity locally, regionally, and globally.

We invite you to join with us to make the WNZ@ICASA2011 a hub for women’s organizing – and the catalyst for a shared agenda to champion women, girls, and gender equality in the HIV response across the continent.